Another top-10 finish maintains INDYCAR points lead for Palou

Another top-10 finish for Chip Ganassi Racing’s (CGR) Alex Palou in the No. 10 American Legion Honda during Sunday’s Bommarito 500 kept the NTT INDYCAR SERIES points leader still in control of his title hopes. And now it’s down to a two-man race with two drivers very familiar with one another.

Scott Dixon, one of Palou’s CGR teammates, won his second consecutive race to move within 74 points of Palou with two races remaining. The pair are the only two in contention for the series championship.

Palou managed a seventh-place finish Sunday – his 15th of the season in as many races – moving up seven spots during the course of the race. He qualified fifth but had to move back nine spots because of an unapproved engine change on Saturday. Rain forced qualifying to Sunday morning, just hours before the race.

“It was a busy day with qualifying and the race, which isn’t very common,” Palou said. “Qualifying was a little bit better than we expected with P5, but we had to drop back nine positions with the engine change. It was an okay race, but it was very tough to pass. I thought it was a good race to finish P7 from P14. We're very happy with our pace but we'll keep working on the short ovals.”

With Josef Newgarden finishing 25th Sunday, he was eliminated from contention for the title. It will come down to the CGR teammates and the final two races – both road courses, including the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey won by Palou last year.

“It was a very positive day for the team and the No. 9 car,” Palou said. “They did something that no one thought we could do on fuel and tire mileage. Now we know that the championship is going to stay with the team, and I can’t wait for Portland.”

After getting hit nose to nose by Will Power in Saturday’s practice after Power spun off the wall, Marcus Ericsson’s No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz Honda underwent major repairs from the CGR crew. Using parts of Palou’s backup livery, Ericsson took the track in a car featuring The American Legion’s Be the One message prominently displayed. And despite starting the race 10th, Ericsson was able to move up five spots to secure his 13th top-10 finish of the season.

"I think we had a decent day after starting from the back. It’s always hard to overtake here,” Ericsson said. “We had good strategy and some good restarts to move us up through the field. Huge thank you to the entire Huski Ice Spritz crew and Chip Ganassi Racing to get me out there today. Congrats to Scott for winning the race and congrats to Chip Ganassi Racing for winning the championship with either Scott or Alex. It’s a huge accomplishment.”

The INDYCAR SERIES moves West for the Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland on Sept. 3.